I’ve just returned home from work and heard the tragic news that Tomas Lindberg has died at age 52. I will have a post honoring his memory in the coming hours. That tribute post is now live and available to read here.
There were two pieces of significant news last week. One involved the announced farewell album and tour of Megadeth, which I covered yesterday. Today’s post regards pioneering melodic death metal act At The Gates, who announced a new album but also an ominous update.
At The Gates have been back at it for a long time now since reforming in 2008. They have released three studio albums in that span and toured extensively. Things with the band have been pretty quiet since 2021’s album The Nightmare Of Being. For those who don’t recall (everyone but me, I’m sure), that album was my pick for 2021 Album of the Year.
Sadly, we’ve found out why the band has been so quiet the past few years. Singer Tomas Lindberg announced last Friday that he has been in a battle with a rare form of oral cancer. This blabbermouth.net article outlines the issues. He underwent major surgery and radiation therapy for it, and a reoccurence of the cancer was found earlier this year. Lindberg has been largely isolated through this time due to his treatments, and this obviously affects his ability to perform.
Clearly it is troubling times in the At The Gates camp, and Lindberg has stated he will remain secluded and not give interviews or any further information regarding his illness or treatment. This does also preclude the band from being able to perform.
One thing it won’t hamper, though, is a new album release. The band have been working on things for a few years and have a series of demo takes Lindberg recorded before his cancer saga. The group had hoped to wait until Lindberg was on the mend to release new music but with this updated news, they will go ahead and release the new album.
The album is also significant in that it marks the return of guitarist Anders Björler, a founding member of the group who had departed in 2017. This reunites Anders with his twin brother, bassist Jonas. Everyone in the band and fans were all looking forward to Anders’ return.
The news about Tomas Lindberg is harrowing, and hopefully he will find eventual healing as he goes along. There is some solace in us getting a new At The Gates album, which at this time we don’t have any details or time frame for. It is hollow in comparison to a cancer battle, but all there really is to do is hope for the best, respect Lindberg’s wishes for privacy, and jam out to the new album when it arrives.
Special report time this week, as we got a few pieces of huge news a few days back. The first of which that I’ll cover today involves the impending end of thrash titans Megadeth.
Last week, Megadeth posted a countdown to something on their website. The countdown was only a few days long, it was not some super weeks-long saga. Most people figured the announcement would have to do with a new album, which Dave Mustaine has talked about recording over the past year. Others thought it might have to do with the seminal Rust In Peace record, which was referenced in the countdown announcement and is nearly 35 years old.
But the announcement, that came on August 14th, was far more significant than just a new album. Such an album was indeed announced and is tentatively slated to release in early 2026. The band also announced they would head out on a world tour in ’26.
None of that is shocking or even outside the realm of routine. But the notice that this album and tour would be Megadeth’s last was definitely not anticipated. A video from Megadeth’s mascot Vic Rattlehead announced the album as being the band’s last and Dave Mustaine also released a statement confirming that Megadeth were engaging in a farewell tour. The details of the tour are not prepared yet and it is expected to last a few years.
I was a bit taken aback at the announcement. I honestly wasn’t expecting Dave Mustaine to pull the plug or even entertain the concept anytime soon. But, he is currently 63 years old and has had a share of health battles. He could be 65 or 66 years old by the time this farewell tour wraps up, so it does make some sense when reflecting upon it. Of course it’s also useless for me to speculate on it, as the decision is clearly in the hands of Dave Mustaine and I don’t know a thing about any of it.
This news generated some buzz, obviously, and not all of it was good. One aspect people didn’t like was the use of AI in the Vic Rattlehead video. I do think AI sucks but I also don’t have the same sharply ideological stance against it that many do. There is nothing I can do to halt its spread, as much as it sucks that it’s forcing its way into the art world. But it’s not a massive part of this topic and is very much a conversation for another time.
The other cynical part of this farewell announcement is obvious to any music fan who has been around long enough to see “farewell” tours, and then see the same bands show up again a few years on. We have no way of knowing if Megadeth will “honor” this farewell statement, or if Dave will change his mind mid-stream and keep things running to some degree. It’s especially a point of thought when a band only has rough plans for a years-long world tour instead of a solid list of farewell dates already planned.
The only thing we can really do is wait and see. I really have no reason not to take Dave Mustaine at face value here. Sure, Dave has said a LOT over the years and running him down is one of the heavy metal Internet’s favorite hobbies. But I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that this plan holds and Megadeth truly is bowing out in a few years’ time. The truth is that it really doesn’t matter to me that much even if he doesn’t stick to it. My life will go on whether or not Megadeth retires in a bit or if they press on in some form.
Megadeth has been a vitally important band to my musical fandom. Rust In Peace was THE album that cemented my interest in heavy metal and sent me on a quest to find faster and heavier music, a quest that still rolls on to this day. All of the real and perceived negative stuff surrounding Dave and Megadeth pales in comparison to how significant Megadeth has been to me.
So I will do the only thing there is to do – wait, check out the new album and see if Megadeth truly are done. I may take in a show on the upcoming tour, that will remain to be seen. I’ve only seen Megadeth once and that was as an opener for Iron Maiden in 2013. The set was excellent but I would like to take in a full Megadeth show so I’ll keep an eye on upcoming tour dates.
If the end is near for Megadeth, then I salute them for the contributions to this fine form of music over the decades and thank them for everything. And if it isn’t the end, I salute them for the contributions to this fine form of music and thank them for everything. And that’s about all I can really say on it.
So my post is late, big shock I know. This was actually due to an IT issue. I thought I had killed my trackball and I couldn’t find another mouse so I was navigating my PC with keyboard shortcuts and wasn’t having a grand time of it. I somehow got the trackball going again but everything got pushed back a little bit. No biggie.
I am now up to 1994 on this series. I was either a junior or senior in high school, depending on the time of year. I was still a fairly directionless, dumb teenager, though at some point in this year I did commit to joining the US Navy, which I would go through with a year later. But that’s a story for 1995, a post that’s coming tomorrow.
1994 was a big year for music. Grunge would symbolically “die” with the suicide of Kurt Cobain. New strains of alternative music were popping up. Alt-rock was really taking shape and was becoming the default version of rock on the radio and MTV. Heavy metal saw its older and more traditional forms fall off hard, but new, more extreme variants were having a field day around this time. Death metal was about as big as it would ever be, though it would have a short shelf life in the “almost mainstream.” And many of us in the pre-Internet USA were getting word of a crazy ass murder that happened in ’93 surrounding a form of music called “black metal.”
But neither of those forms of music are represented on today’s list. I was entrenched in death metal around this time, but the format doesn’t always lend itself to big, noticeable singles. And I wasn’t quite ready for black metal quite yet. I was fine with the music I had access to. I was still keeping an ear to what mainstream music had to offer, at least for the next few years. So with all that out of the way, let’s get into 1994.
Nine Inch Nails – Reptile
It’s fair to say The Downward Spiral has a handful of my favorite Nine Inch Nails cuts. One that’s really stood out to me when I’ve played it in recent years is this later into the album track that is, simply enough, about getting an STD (or STI now, I don’t know). Fine enough in itself but this dark and twisted musical accompaniment makes it almost desirable to engage in this chase. Conceptually this song is either a continuation of what happened in the big hit Closer, and/or it’s just some shit that happened to Trent Reznor. Musically it’s a titan of industrial metal.
Oasis – Live Forever
Britpop was big in ’94 and the eventual world leaders of the movement showed up with their debut album Definitely Maybe. Live Forever is a song I’ve gushed about several times before and I’m most likely going to do so several times again. Today I’ll do so, but briefly. This song is a beautiful account of the unbreakable bond between family, friends and other loved ones. The song can suit the most special of occasions like weddings and funerals, or simply sitting and contemplating those special bonds in life. This is easily one of the greatest Oasis songs.
Corrosion Of Conformity – Seven Days
Up next is a somber, powerful quasi-doom ballad from the long-running North Carolina noise merchants on their album Deliverance, a stark turn into southern rock and metal that redefined the band’s legacy. The song is a powerful statement that entwines the religious symbolism of Christ with the minefield of personal interactions. Hard not to get swept away in the emotions and desolate nature of this masterwork.
The Cranberries – Zombie
When The Cranberries hit I did not exactly go wild for them. Linger and Dreams didn’t connect with dull, disaffected teenage me. While I will gladly report that I am very into The Cranberries as a whole these days, our topic today is a whole other matter.
Zombie is a haunting, wretched heavy metal masterpiece about the woeful decades of The Troubles that plagued Ireland and England through a lot of the 1900’s. It isn’t just a case of a lily-white alt-rock darling going “metal” for a gag – this is full on the real deal, and with it a vocal performance from Dolores O’Riordran that goes down in immortality, and has already sadly outlived her.
For any song I’ll ever discuss on here, this is one I figure damn near everyone who might read would already know. And if you don’t, well, stop whatever you’re doing and educate yourself now.
Bruce Dickinson – Tears Of The Dragon
Bruce Bruce took a huge, frightful step in the mid 1990’s and left Iron Maiden, the band that made him and that also he made, or at least he helped put on the worldwide map. His second solo album Balls To Picasso was his first statement since leaving and it offered up this insane, massive power ballad.
This is an immense song about facing the fears of stepping out, which for Bruce was leaving Maiden, but the song is universal and everyone can find solace in its message. Bruce was able to explore space not available in Steve Harris’ vision of 1990’s Iron Maiden. While their paths would reconnect for one of music’s most electrifying reunion sagas, Bruce did acclimate himself very well on his own.
That wraps up 1994, which was a huge year in music and honestly a lot of songs I love are missing from this list. But hey, that’s the nature of picking five from each year. Up next is 1995, which was one of the most significant years of my life. And you, spoiled reader, get the goods tomorrow.
Today I’m heading all the way back to 2007, which is somehow 18 years gone. We have a bit of a story to go over on how the legendary Swedish doom outfit Candlemass once again lost their singer, but this time they struck gold in terms of a replacement.
Candlemass – King Of The Grey Islands
Released June 22, 2007 via Nuclear Blast Records
Candlemass have had a whale of a ride, their whole story is pretty fascinating but is far too much to run down on an album post. I’ll pick up around 2004, when the band reunited with their legendary singer Messiah Marcolin for a well-received, self-titled album. As the band convened again in 2006 to record a follow-up, Messiah once again bailed on the group, in an episode the band described as “pre-recording psychosis.” This would be Marcolin’s end with the group, he has not convened with them since this departure (this is scheduled to change in September at a festival in Greece for a one-off reunion show).
Candlemass were left with their principal songwriter and founder Leif Edling on bass, Mats “Mappe” Björkman and Lars Johansson on guitars, and Jan Lindh on drums. Edling began doing vocal demos of their new material with singer Mats Levén, who had a side project with Edling and had also helped out with demos of the reunion album.
Edling had Levén in mind for the vacant singer’s position and Levén would eventually assume it, but there was a detour to take and Levén would not join Candlemass until 2012. The demos from these sessions became available in a box set titled Doomology, a set I have and will discuss at a future point in time.
The detour came in the form of Robert Lowe, singer of acclaimed Texas doom outfit Solitude Aeturnus. I’m recalling this story entirely from memory and hearsay without sources, but as I recall it, Lowe’s wife got in contact with people connected to Candlemass, perhaps Edling himself, and proposed they audition Lowe for the singer’s role. Lowe sent in his work on a few classic Candlemass songs, and Edling was sold. Lowe was hired, did the vocal sessions for the album, and we were off to the races.
Our album today, in its standard configuration, features 10 tracks at a beefy 53:55 runtime. There is a version with bonus tracks, that version is what I will cover today as the bonus stuff is significant and also the one I own. There are other bonus versions available but I will leave those out of what is going to already be a stupidly long post.
Prologue
This is a brief, slightly under one minute long intro piece. Just a simple guitar passage. Nothing to really ponder about here but nothing wrong with it either. Grade: B
Emperor Of The Void
I guess Doom Metal Lesson One is that not every song needs to be slow and mournful, not that Candlemass didn’t already long establish that lesson. This is a massively heavy and relatively fast pounding track that visits, figuratively and/or literally, an old ruler who is decaying away along with his empire. The album’s title comes into play in this tale of mortality crumbling. The guitar solo in this one stands tall above all else, then there is a brief quiet passage before the psychedelic pounding continues. Great work on this one. Grade: A+
Devil Seed
We get a slower paced one here. There are a lot of stoners drawn to doom metal and we don’t want to get them too excited. But what the song lacks in speed it more than makes up for in power. We even get into a bit of gallop in the chorus while still maintaining the 420-friendly tempo. Robert Lowe delivers quite a performance as he sings about someone descending into evil. Grade: A
Of Stars And Smoke
Another bit of a slow burner though not overly so, there is a bit of bite to this one. Heavy as hell yet again and a contemplation of fading away from existence, as nothing in doom metal is bright or cheery. Wonderfully done chorus from Lowe here too. Grade: B+
Demonia 6
This one is faster and quite creepy as the main character enters some ancient evil building and is taken by dark forces. This one does have a slow bridge portion out of the guitar solo but then goes back to the simple yet effective riff that anchors the song. It also goes on a trippy bit at the end. Grade: B+
Destroyer
This one goes slow but also pounds to a pulp with its heaviness. Fitting, as this dark tale speaks of a downtrodden, hellbent person who becomes the destroyer of the world. It is wanton slaughter brought by a mindless, hateful killer as opposed to an evil mastermind. The song maintains its form until the last few minutes where it goes in a doom-laden instrumental passage. Grade: A
Man Of Shadows
This one moves more mid-tempo and very much reminds me of something Robert Lowe’s other band Solitude Aeturnus would do. That similarity might come from his presence, of course. This song shifts form a few times through its six minutes, offering up a buffet of doom excellence. Grade: A
Clearsight
This one also sounds familiar, as its faster guitar romp is straight out of the classic Candlemass playbook. The song deals with a ship whose crew sailed to the edges of the world looking for some unnamed thing. The find is never made and the ship becomes a ghost ship, haunting the desolate seas. Grade: B+
The Opal City
This is another instrumental and again a brief one, at just 1:12. It’s a powerful riff and sets a nice atmosphere, but again it’s just a bit piece. Grade: B
Embracing The Styx
We close the standard album with a sweeping and powerful statement, both musically and lyrically. This one slams its way through heavy and haunting guitar work, riffing hard as razors when it needs to and letting in some atmosphere at other points. This has a bit of a bass passage from Leif Edling before resuming the guitar beating. The song is a morose tale of someone welcoming the embrace of death, using the famed River Styx and its ferryman Charon as imagery to mark the narrator’s voluntary transition to the afterlife. Grade: A+
That wraps up the main album. I will briefly discuss the version with two bonus tracks. The bonuses are re-recordings of two Candlemass standards, Solitude and At The Gallows End. The first song is originally from the debut album Epicus Doomicus Metallicus while the second hails from the band’s classic Nightfall.
Both of these takes with Robert Lowe are fantastic and are some of the best versions of the songs I’ve ever heard. That’s saying something too, as there are several versions of both with a variety of different singers, both live and studio retakes. These songs are also not officially available much of anywhere besides on the physical CD release, it is something I would highly advise people to seek out if interested.
Candlemass entered a new era with Robert Lowe behind the mic. Some fans were vocally upset that the legendary group was forging on without the band’s signature singer Messiah Marcolin, but others including me were ecstatic at Lowe’s involvement. This was a doom metal royalty marriage made in heaven, or hell, I don’t know, but it worked splendidly. Lowe would remain in the band until 2012, with two more albums issued.
This album is extremely easy for me to grade. It is excellent from front to back, with nothing weak or “secondary” on its tracklist. The music is crushing, Robert Lowe sounds amazing and this pairing fit like a hand in a glove.
Album Grade: A
Candlemass had many twists and turns to get to this point in their career, and years later would see another odd series of twists and turns. Their story is quite unlikely and compelling. But this particular fork in the road is an excellent place to stop and enjoy the crushing tones of the doom metal pioneers.
So now I’m spamming out these “songs by year” posts twice a week. I was supposed to post this yesterday, but oh well. This will help me get through this series by or near the end of the year, it’ll probably bleed a hair bit into 2026 but it will accomplish my goal just the same.
We are now to 1993. For me I was in the middle of high school and now more used to the massively changed music landscape since 1991 blew everything up. Alt rock was the new normal and heavy metal was going in several directions, some weird and some that would shape the genre for decades to come. I was in the thick of it and I was in an odd place where I was both enjoying the stuff I’d see on MTV and also exploring heavy metal’s underground, mostly shaped by this point at what we now call the old school death metal scene.
Essentially the music of the 1990’s was an adverse reaction to the music of the ’80’s and I was more so along for the ride on the side of the 1990’s. As I got older I would come to re-embrace the ’80’s music of my childhood, but at this point I was a 1990’s teenager. Like many dumb teenagers at the time, I felt like Mike Judge was spying on me and my friends when he came up with the concept for Beavis and Butthead. In reality he came up with it a few years before this but let’s not let the truth get in the way of my awesome narrative.
Anyway, enough of long-winded horseshit, as much as I engage in it on a weekly basis on this site. Let’s get into five of the songs I love from 1993.
Dwight Yoakam – A Thousand Miles From Nowhere
I have to keep this short so I won’t get huge into it, but most of my appreciation for 1990’s country came many, many years later as I let go of old biases and learned to appreciate the medium. The particulars of this would take too long to discuss, but one song I did really love at the time was this cryfest of a breakup song from Dwight. This cut from his mega hit album This Time hit with me the first time I ran into it. I can’t remember for sure because this was all over 30 years ago, but I kind of think MTV even played this a bit, but whatever the case I was exposed to it and became a fan of Dwight’s through this song. Fantastic stuff.
Tool – Sober
Now for what I was more into at the time, the concept of alt-metal showed up in full force by 1993. This was the introduction to Tool for most of us and it was a whale of a hit. This has crushing riffs and a hypnotic beat as the lyrics weave a tale of someone caught in addiction and not getting out. The video was also a massive talking point, with claymation figures made by guitarist Adam Jones and an eerie stop motion approach to the flick. People can say whatever they want about Tool and they often do, but this was a total mindfuck back in the day.
Cracker – Low
This was the year Cracker came around with what became their big hit. This song was all over MTV and other airwaves and has endured years later. This song is interesting because it fits the “woeful dirge” style but also has a massive amount of swagger to it, it is far more powerful than its mournful tone would imply. I also don’t know what in the hell they’re talking about in the lyrics, things were very obtuse in music around this time but the song rocks so that’s all I really need.
Carcass – Heartwork
This year Carcass chose to continue their evolution away from their grindcore past and fully embrace the strains of melodic death metal. It was great timing, as that scene was emerging out of Gothenburg, Sweden at the same time. Carcass put their own English stamp on the scene and delivered a clinical, precise and still brutal set. The title track of this album sees a tortured artist and, well, a tortured art piece, as the artist tries to assemble his masterpiece from the dismembered remains of his muse. This song had a bit of an extra kick in the ass along with it.
Sepultura – Refuse/Resist
The Brazilian masters of heavy released their seminal Chaos A.D. In 1993. The opening track is a brutal and noisy offering that showcases political and social unrest alongside a more groovy and tribal-oriented musical style in contrast to Sepultura’s thrash and death metal past. It remains as one of the band’s standout tracks to this day.
That wraps up 1993. Next week we’ll continue to plumb the depths of the mid-1990’s and cover when I exited school and entered the “real” world.
After a few weeks off it’s time to get this series going again. Here I go to a year and pick five songs I really like from that year. Not necessarily my five favorites, but certainly five of my favorites.
This time we’ve arrived at 1992. The music scene was a lot different after the nuclear chaos of 1991. Grunge and alternative were in, and a lot of ’80’s rock and metal was out. The metal end of it hung on for a bit but ’80’s rock was basically vaporized by this point.
I myself turned 15 this year so I was just along for the ride, taking in things as they came. By this point I had long accepted that I wouldn’t have the “Hair Metal High School” party that I had long been looking forward to as everyone had traded in their garb for flannel. I was well on my way to the far heavier side of music but this hindsight list doesn’t necessarily reflect that. Anyway, let’s have at it.
Iron Maiden – Judas Be My Guide
Maiden did not have the best decade in the 1990’s, but they did crank out a handful of nice songs and many of them are found on the ’92 record Fear Of The Dark. The one that hit with me beyond all the others, even the stellar title track, is this quick and dirty cut that is widely considered one of the band’s most underrated songs. This one does a good job of showcasing the more stripped down rock approach Maiden took in this era. Overall the move wasn’t well advised but it did work in spots, this being the prime one.
The Black Crowes – Remedy
The Crowes hit big in 1990 with their debut, and they hit again two years later with a bit of a change in direction. They went all in on deep fried southern melodies here and created a hodgepodge of rock, funk and soul that charmed a captive audience. This song basically says “uh, actually drugs are good” and is a total musical explosion.
Black Sabbath – I
For a brief moment we had another glorious run of Ronnie James Dio-led Black Sabbath. It didn’t last long but we did get the excellent album Dehumanizer out of the brief run. I is a slamming song that is apparently a redress of grievances from Dio to people who criticize heavy metal. This was a nice blast from a reformed legend in an era where everything was turned on its head.
Nine Inch Nails – Last
Up next is this cut from the 1992 EP Broken, which saw Trent Reznor dive into extremely heavy metal to get his points across. The points in Last are either that Trent is a lousy hook-up, and/or he hates the record industry. It’s probably both. The riff here is heavy and hypnotic and anchors this absolute slamming romp through whoredom, real or symbolic.
Alice In Chains – Down In A Hole
This one hails from the band’s seminal album Dirt. I’ve gone on about this song before, it is a haunting and beautiful lament that is actually a love track to Jerry Cantrell’s then-girlfriend, but sounds like the stuff of despair from someone at the end of their rope. This song goes beyond just the confines of this annual list and is one of my all-time favorite songs.
That covers 1992. If you’re keeping score, that means 1993 is next. I’m sure most everyone had that figured out already, but there’s always one in a crowd.
Now, in the spirit of the Spanish Inquisition, the unexpected part – the 1993 post is coming tomorrow. I’ve decided to double up on these in order to get them out of the way around the end of the year. I will probably not get two posts every week, which will cause this to run into 2026 for a little bit, but I am going to sprint these out because my various hiatuses have pushed this series WAY off track. So I will be spitting out twice the goods for a bit. Enjoy, or not.
Today we’re going to get into a story I have not ever run across before. This incident happened in either 1985 or ’86, exact dates aren’t specified. While I am a fan of Sammy Hagar and Van Halen and I’ve also been a pro wrestling fan at various points in my life, I have never heard this story before at all until I stumbled onto this video last week.
This presentation is from Dark Side of the Ring, an outfit that puts together documentary episodes about (usually) the seedier side of pro wrestling. If you know anything about wrestling, you know that there’s a lot of seedy stuff. They also do a podcast called Unheard to cover things that don’t really fit into the main documentary episodes and that’s where today’s story comes from.
The episode in question was about the tragic story of former wrestler Adrian Adonis, but the actual meat of today’s story came from legendary grappler Bret “The Hitman” Hart. Bret was being interviewed about Adrian and told this story during the sessions. The filmmakers couldn’t wedge the story into Adrian’s episode but felt they had to tell the full story, and I’m glad they did.
I have posted the video and I fully encourage everyone to check it out to see Bret tell the story. But I will also recap it here.
Bret Hart was flying into New York City with Adrian Adonis and Bret’s brother in law, Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart. Bret was sitting next to a guy who was dressed in a sort of “rock n’ roll” style, not uncommon in the mid-80’s. The guy picks up on Bret and his cohorts being wrestlers and tells Bret that he is a rock star. Bret asks who he is and the guy says he is Sammy Hagar.
Jim Neidhart was rightfully skeptical that the man in question was Sammy Hagar, who at this point had just joined Van Halen. Jim picked up on the guy wearing a cheap Timex watch, something the real Sammy Hagar probably wasn’t doing by this point as he’d made a fair share of cash. It’s worth noting that none of these wrestlers knew what Sammy Hagar looked like, this was the days before the Internet and ready access to photos and all that.
Something else would happen to actually change Jim’s mind though – the group went to Madison Square Garden, the spiritual home of the World Wrestling Federation (now Entertainment). In the back, “Sammy Hagar” took up Adrian on an offer of the currency of the 1980’s, cocaine. “Sammy” snorted a huge line and had a bit of a nosebleed after, this caused Jim to exclaim “It IS Sammy Hagar!”
Celebrities were a common presence at WWF shows, especially at MSG, so “Sammy Hagar” was actually introduced and made his way to the ring. The clip of this hilarious scene is below, and I’m sure anyone who reads this blog can instantly tell that the person is certainly not Sammy Hagar. The crowd were pretty easily able to ascertain that this guy was not Hagar and the very brief appearance got jeered by the fans waiting for the next match.
The podcast goes over another few funny moments of this story – an unnamed New York Yankees ballplayer was also backstage and knew Sammy Hagar personally, he instantly ratted the imposter out. Also, Bret and Adrian and company had to deal with the fallout of bringing a faulty version of Sammy Hagar to the wrestling event, as WWF head Vince McMahon has long been famous for his calm temperament in such matters… But this being a MSG broadcast in the mid-80’s, the Fed was able to sweep this mishap under the rug until just recently.
This story is a really funny slice of entertainment from the ’80’s and, if left where it is, is perfectly fine. The only loose thread is this – who was Not Sammy Hagar? The podcasts hosts wonder if the guy is even still alive and are curious as to who this legend of rock and wrestling might be. It seems as though this guy’s identity might be totally lost to time and mortality – that is, unless you want to engage in a bit of conspiracy theorycraft.
A few of the podcast viewers picked up on something I wouldn’t have honestly considered – the Sammy imposter looks familiar. It’s certainly not Sammy Hagar, but this guy could have easily passed for Dana Carvey. At the time in question Dana Carvey was just getting ready to join Saturday Night Live and become known to the wider world. But had the celebrity impersonation been Dana Carvey, this guy could have pulled it off without a hitch.
That is, barring one further consideration – what if this guy wasn’t a ringer for Dana Carvey, but was Dana Carvey? Dana would become a household name by 1987, but at the time of this wrestling show he was not very well known. He’d had some bit acting parts but wasn’t an SNL cast guy yet. There is some speculation that this actually was Dana Carvey, who wound up on a plane next to Bret Hart and decided to pull a gag.
I think it would be hilarious if it actually was Dana, but logical speculation leads me to believe it wasn’t. Dana has had 40 years to tell this story if he did indeed pull this ruse, and to my knowledge he has never brought it up. I’d think it’d have to be a story he told at some point in time over the decades of interviews he has done. So I am going with “no” on this one.
I have noticed comments indicating that someone does know this person, they aren’t Dana Carvey, and the person is still around. Maybe we’ll get a feature with this dude someday, I really want to hear what he has to say. I’m not saying I necessarily believe that anyone really has a hook-up to this guy, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility.
So here’s to the legend of Not Sammy Hagar appearing at a WWF live event in 1986. It probably wasn’t Dana Carvey but maybe it was, or maybe we’ll get to hear from the perpetrator of this hoax sometime down the line. And if not, well, we at least have this great story from a time when pro wrestlers, the world’s biggest bullshit artists, got bullshitted to a huge degree.
My tribute week (and a half) to Ozzy Osbourne wraps up with this post. Today I’ll discuss one of Black Sabbath’s most significant songs, perhaps their most profound and noted work.
In 1970 Black Sabbath released two albums – their self-titled debut, and the breakout hit record Paranoid. The latter has a whole story behind its name which directly relates to today’s song, so of course we’ll get into it.
Sabbath originally had the framework for a song they were going to call Walpurgis, which is some kind of pagan or witch’s sabbath. The record label was not cool with the name so they changed the song’s name to War Pigs. The band’s intent was also to name the album the same thing, so they devised a cover photo with someone dressed (loosely) as a pig, with a sword to indicate war-inclined thoughts, I guess.
The record label again intervened, this time because a quickly-recorded single from the record had gained a ton of traction and the label wanted the album named after that song. The record was rechristened Paranoid, but the band were stuck with the odd sword guy on the cover because there wasn’t enough time for a different concept.
Everything worked out in the end – Paranoid the album became the band’s breakthrough hit and also their signature record. Paranoid the song was the band’s biggest hit single, and War Pigs became a foundational track of heavy metal on its own.
The song opens with a plodding duel between Geezer Butler’s bass and Tony Iommi’s guitar, with Geezer anchoring the proceedings. Air raid sirens come in to generate the war atmosphere being discussed here. It’s a very effective intro for setting the tone.
The song delivers three verses without any sort of chorus or deviation. These feature short bursts of Bill Ward’s drumming with Iommi and Butler going on their own paths while Ozzy offers up the dark lyrics conflating warmongering politicians with evil and Satan. Each verse is broken up by jam-style pounding, fitting since the song was conceived out of jams the band used to do to fill time in sets in their early days.
The coupling of war-motivated politicians and evil was the original goal of lyricist Geezer Butler. Anti-war sentiment was huge around this time, as the US had mistakenly involved itself in Vietnam while UK residents were fearful of being dragged into it. Sabbath members have offered up differing opinions of just how much Vietnam played in the song’s conception – Butler considered it a central point, while Osbourne felt this was more just a general anti-war song. But there’s no denying War Pigs has a connection to the Vietnam era.
War Pigs caught fire with the crowds around the world also concerned about warmongering and became an immortal hit despite not being released as a single. The song has gone on to be one of the most covered tracks in history, both within heavy metal and beyond. It is often cited near the top of countless best of Black Sabbath lists as well as heavy metal and rock offerings. The song did not chart originally due to not being a single, but Black Sabbath’s final tour in the 2010’s did see War Pigs dance around the UK charts, and it again showed up after Ozzy’s death a few weeks ago.
War Pigs is one of heavy metal’s greatest treasures. The song has withstood the shift of time and generations to become immortalized in the collective conscious, both as an anti-war protest and as a heavy metal masterpiece. It is a true crown jewel in the legacy of heavy metal’s most iconic band, Black Sabbath.
This post concludes my Ozzy Osbourne tribute. There will be more Ozzy posts in the future, of course, but next week I will get up to some other stuff. There are a few unusual posts next Monday and Wednesday, one a commemoration and the other a hilarious story I was just made aware of last week. ‘Till then.
For this week I’ll continue discussing Ozzy Osbourne, honoring the legend who passed away July 22nd. Today I’ll get into the album he did to introduce the world to his new guitarist and to bow out of the 1980’s.
Ozzy Osbourne – No Rest For The Wicked
Released October 24, 1988 via Epic Records
Ozzy was still holding serve in the late ’80’s, with albums still going double platinum and certainly maintaining his reputation as the Prince of Darkness. While hair metal ruled the day, Ozzy was holding a winning hand with a heavier brand of rock and metal.
Where Ozzy did have to retool was in his band lineup. Randy Castillo returned on drums, but everyone else besides Ozzy was either a new or returning hand. Bob Daisley once again came around to play bass. John Sinclair also signed up to play keyboards. The album was produced by Roy Thomas Baker, whose studio credits are roughly five miles long.
Most significantly, Ozzy had a new axe slinger. Moving on from Jake E. Lee, Ozzy gambled on a young New Jersey player who had sent in an audition tape. Zakk Wylde would get the gig and become Ozzy’s most enduring guitarist after all was said and done.
Today’s album is a standard affair with 9 songs at 43:08. The album’s last song, Hero, was originally unlisted but is now labeled on subsequent reissues and streaming services. The album has been reissued with a couple of bonus tracks.
Miracle Man
We open hot out of the gate with an absolute shredder and the album’s lead single. Zakk Wylde introduces himself and his tone pretty quick and provides the drive behind this headbanging track. Here Ozzy is having a go at a nemesis who had plagued him for years – the televangelist Jimmy Swaggert, who by this time had fallen into scandal. Swaggert’s resulting fall from grace was like serving up a meatball pitch to Ozzy, who hit the home run and sent it out of the stadium. Ozzy would also get the ultimate last laugh – living 22 days after Swaggert passed away on July 1, 2025. Grade: A+
Devil’s Daughter
The shredfest continues as this time Ozzy does holy battle with the devil’s daughter. I’m not sure who the devil’s daughter was, but I’m sure she was a formidable foe. We get a creepy interlude with babies crying and keyboards before Zakk rips up the solo on this one, pretty cool song. Grade: A
Crazy Babies
Up next was the second of two singles. This one gets a lot of divided opinions – some feel the song is awful, others enjoy it as a nice piece of hot rock. I’m in the second camp, I think this song is really good. The lyrical fare is also a topic of debate – some think it’s about babies born into crack addiction, others think it’s an ode to Ozzy’s wild and crazy fanbase. I’m again in the second camp, though like anyone else I have no damn idea what it’s really about. But I enjoy it nonetheless. Grade: A
Breakin’ All The Rules
We have one here that sounds like it could have come from the prior album, The Ultimate Sin. It is still suitably heavy and hard and keeps the album moving along. Ozzy is taking on some unnamed adversary by doing just what the title says. Nothing diverges from the path here, another really good track. Grade: A-
Bloodbath In Paradise
If things were a little too “pretty” for some, this one should spice things up nicely. This is a creepy track about the infamous Tate-LaBianca murders. Everything is going at 11 here and this song is just splendid. Grade: A+
Fire In The Sky
A more atmospheric but still quite heavy track here that tackles someone who got along in life with a lot of deep-seated problems and now those issues are finally creeping out for all to see. This might be a bit introspective for something from the Prince of Darkness but the song still works well. Grade: B+
Tattooed Dancer
No introspection here – this is a wild and crazy song that flies off the seat of its pants. The title outlines exactly what the song is about. I’m sure we could dive deep and explore how “bad” the lyrics are in today’s socio-political contexts, but I have better shit to do. Grade: B+
Demon Alcohol
This one is really interesting, as Ozzy embodies the dark spirit of the literal spirits that often consumed him. He would continue to have his struggles over the years, but the song is a pretty cool look at the grip of addiction. And, in keeping with the rest of the album, quite white hot and rocking. Grade: A-
Hero
This song was originally unlisted, I’ve never come across the reasons why. It is shiner and brighter perhaps than the rest of the album but it’s not a massive departure either. It is also warm and sentimental, which is a bit of a departure for the record but not anything out of bounds when truly examining Ozzy Osbourne. It was a nice little bonus for those of us who played the album the first time without knowing it was there. Grade: B+
No Rest For The Wicked was another explosive round in the arsenal of Ozzy Osbourne. The album hit number 13 on the Billboard 200 and had several European chart placements. It is certified double platinum in the US and platinum in Canada.
Ozzy and company would tour behind the effort, though with one lineup change – Bob Daisley was out after recording, and Geezer Butler famously rejoined his old Sabbath bandmate for the shows.
This one is extremely easy to assess – I like everything here and enjoy the album from front to back. It’s not of the same “weight” as earlier Ozzy recordings, but honestly nothing is and it’s a fool’s errand to grade a person’s work against their most significant. The final verdict here is really simple.
Album Grade: A
Ozzy continued his decade of destruction with No Rest For The Wicked, and the start of the next decade would only bring greater success for the Prince of Darkness. He was now armed with a trusty guitarist who would stick around for a bit and things were still coming up aces. Ozzy would have one of his darkest personal moments in the year after this album’s release, but eventually he was able to rehab back into reality and continue adding to the legacy that we still celebrate today.
For the next week I’ll run several posts as a tribute to the late, great Ozzy Osbourne. I will continue covering Ozzy-related stuff next week, but I’m doing this all off the cuff so I don’t know exactly what form everything will take. You’ll find out just after I do!
Today I’ll get into the song that became Ozzy’s most successful single. We all know that Crazy Train is ubiquitous with Ozzy and is his most-recognized track, but it was Mama, I’m Coming Home that took the highest chart position of Ozzy’s solo career.
This well-known and loved ballad came to form on the 1991 album No More Tears. The album is often cited as one of Ozzy’s best, he and his music partners did a marvelous job of retooling for the 1990’s and offering up an album that was heavy and real. The songs were MTV and radio staples, and are still in rotation over 30 years later.
The song was composed by Ozzy and Zakk Wylde. The lyrics were written by Lemmy Kilminster, one of four lyrical contributions he made to No More Tears. Lemmy stated many times that he made more money from Mama, I’m Coming Home than he did from his career in Motörhead.
This ballad granted Ozzy his only solo Billboard Top 40 single, it peaked at number 28. His only other entries higher on the singles charts were collaborations with Lita Ford and Post Malone. The single also hit number 2 on the Mainstream Rock chart and was certified platinum in Canada.
Today’s song is a ballad, but one with a lot of power behind it. The song begins with some clean picking from Zakk Wylde and Ozzy ruminating through the first verse before the full band kicks in and delivers a fair bit of heft for what is considered such a tender ballad. Ozzy sings very powerfully here and the chorus soars along with the keyboard enhancements.
Lyrically this is a pretty dense and tough affair. The song is Ozzy’s lament to Sharon, who put up with a lot of Ozzy’s shit. The years just before No More Tears had some especially bad moments, but Sharon stuck with her husband through it all. The years following this song and album would be much better for the couple, both personally and professionally.
Mama, I’m Coming Home had two videos filmed for it. The first one was weird and Ozzy did not like it at all, so they went back and filmed the far more familiar second cut. The original is also really, really hard to find – my digging has not turned up a version that I could post here, so I won’t bother.
This song took a special place at Ozzy’s final show on July 5th in Birmingham. The Back To Beginning concert featured a slew of acts inspired by Ozzy and Black Sabbath, as well as brief sets from Ozzy’s solo outfit and Sabbath. Mama, I’m Coming Home was the only song played in Ozzy’s five song set that was not from the Blizzard Of Ozz album. The song’s performance was very emotional for many and clips of the performance have been among the show’s most-viewed highlights.
And of course now the song takes on a whole new meaning, as on July 22nd Ozzy truly did go home for the final time. While we are left without the powerful voice and simple charm of Ozzy Osbourne, his legacy is immortal and is etched in his songs, perhaps none more fitting of the end of the line than this sweet and somber ballad.
The Crooked Wanderer 